2.      Data overview

2.1.     River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs)

According to the WFD River Basin Management Plans should since 22.12.2009 be available in all River Basin Districts across the EU. There are however serious delays in some parts of the EU, and in some countries consultations are still on-going.

Ultimo 2011 23 EU Member States have had their RBMPs adopted. Four countries Portugal, Spain, Greece and the Walloon and Brussels part of Belgium had not yet finalised the consultation of the RBMPs and therefore no adopted RBMPs.

Figure 2.1: Overview of the status of reporting of RBMPs

Source: DG Environment (Status 22/12/2011).

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/participation/map_mc/map.htm

GREEN - River Basin Management Plans adopted.

YELLOW - consultations finalised, but awaiting adoption.

RED - consultation have not started or on-going.

* Norway is implementing the Water Framework Directive as part of the European Economic Area Agreement, with specific timetable agreed.

2.2.     WISE-WFD data reporting and database

Member States have in addition to the digital version of the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) reported a comprehensive set of data related to the results of the RBMPs such as ecological status for each individual water body or significant pressures affecting a water body. The WFD-CIS Guidance Document No. 21 “Guidance for reporting under the Water Framework Directive” provides the specification of the data that have to be reported by MS in relation RBMPs.

2.2.1.      Status of WISE-WFD database

Most of the Member States with adopted RBMPs have reported data from the RBMPs to the WISE-WFD database. However, Denmark and Slovenia that have adopted RBMPs have yet not reported data WISE-WFD database. Spain and Greece have reported data from their RBMPs to the WISE-WFD database., but not yet adopted RBMPs All data reported to the WISE-WFD database by primo February have been included into the analysis presented on ecological and chemical status and pressures.

The data reported by Member States have had a first quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) and have then been transferred into WISE-WFD database. EEA has been using the WISE-WFD database version February 2012. This database contained information from 24 Member States and it is covering more than 100 000 surface water bodies and 12 600 groundwater bodies.

2.2.2.      Reported RBDs

Ultimo 2011 data from 144 river basin districts (RBDs) have been reported by Member States and incorporated into the WFD-WISE database (Table 2.1). There are still missing reporting from some countries and RBDs. The smaller and medium size Member States generally have 1-5 RBDs, while Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland and Portugal have 8 to 15 RBDs.

Table 2.1 Overview of reported RBDs per Member State and missing Member States

Note:  Spain and Greece have reported data but do not yet have provided RBMPs. Denmark and Slovenia have provided RBMPs, but not yet reported data.

Source: Extract from WISE-WFD (version February 2012).

Size of RBDs

The size of the RBDs varies considerably from very small ones below 1,000 km² to the largest one, the Danube with over 800 000 km² (Table 2.2). Obviously, the international RBDs are generally larger. The average size of current reported (national) RBDs is about 30 000 km². There are 42 and 29 RBDs with an area greater than 15 000 and 50 000 km², respective. These two size categories cover 25 % and 65 % of the reported area.  More than half of the population are found in the RBDs larger than 50 000 km².

Table 2.2 Reported RBD divided by size of the RBD.

Source: Extract from WISE-WFD database

There are 14 international RBDs with an area of the RBDs greater than 40 000 km² (Table 2.3). The international Danube RBD is by far the largest RBD and consists of eight national RBDs. The Rhine and Elbe internal RBDs consist of six and four national RBDs. Most of the other international RBDs are composed of two national RBDs.

Table 2.3 International River Basin Districts greater than 40 000 km²

There are 26 national RBDs (plus 18 being part of international RBDs) greater than 40 000 km², with six of them being larger than 100 000 km² (Table 2.4). Some of the large districts consist mainly of one large river (e.g. the Loire, Rhône, and Ebro river basin), while other districts are composed of several river system such as the Swedish Bothnian Bay and Bothnian Sea RBDs or the Scottish RBD.

Table 2.4 National River Basin Districts greater than 40 000 km²

2.3.     EEA WISE-SoE data collection

EEA base its water quality data on a representative sub-sample of national monitoring results, which EEA member countries report voluntarily each year to the EEA. EEA has mainly collected annual values (e.g. average, median, minimum and maximum) but in some cases EEA also have collected seasonal (summer and winter) values. In the context of the implementation of the WFD the annual data flow for water quality has been transferred into  the WISE ‘State of the Environment’ (SoE) voluntary data flow (WISE-SoE). With this it remains one of the EIONET Priority Data Flows, but gains full integration into the reporting under WISE and complementarily with data collected under the WFD.

Data are transferred on an annual basis from the countries to the EEA and stored in Waterbase.  At the end of 2011, Waterbase contained water quality information on

• more than 10 000 river stations in 37 countries,
• more than 3500 lake stations in 35 countries,
• more than xx coastal stations, and
• quality data from around 1500 groundwater bodies.

Some of the water quality data are from countries not reporting on the WFD. The different Waterbase are available through the following Website http://www.eea.europa.eu//themes/water/dc.

The data reported in the WISE-WFD and the WISE-SoE databases should make it possible for comparing the water quality data with the data on ecological and chemical status and pressure information for the individual water bodies. The have been several obstacles for making this match between the two database including Member States reporting different water body identifications in the two reporting streams. Selected results on comparing the information in the two databases are presented in the chapter 7. However, these analyses will be further improved and more detailed results will be presented during the spring 2012.

2.4.     Water bodies

The WFD requires that waters within each river basin district be differentiated into water categories: groundwater, rivers, lakes, transitional waters and coastal waters. These waters are then further sub-divided depending on their type, based on natural factors (such as altitude, longitude, geology and size) that might influence ecological communities. This division forms the basis of water bodies. Water bodies are the basic management units for reporting and assessing compliance with the WFDs environmental objectives.

The EU Member States now has reported 12 600 groundwater bodies and more than 100 000 surface water bodies: 80% of them rivers, 15% lakes and 5% coastal and transitional waters (Table 2.5). All Member States have reported groundwater bodies; 23 Member States, all reporting Member States except Malta have reported river water bodies, 21 Member States have reported lake water bodies, and 15 and 19 Member States have reported transitional and coastal water bodies, respectively.

Table 2.5: Number of Member States, RBDs, water bodies, and length or area, per water category.

Source: Extract from WISE-WFD http://wfd.atkins.dk/report/WFD_aggregation_reports/SWB_RIVER_DENSITY   

Notes: Based on 142 RBDs available in WISE-WFD database (version ultimo August 2011). Wrong river length for Italy, and coastal area for Spain not included in average calculation and sum.

In total there are reported more than one million kilometres of rivers and more than 90 000 km² lakes and 290 000 km² transitional and coastal waters. The total area of reported groundwater bodies is 3.5 million km2. Groundwater bodies have been for different horizon and groundwater bodies may overlay other groundwater bodies.

Table 2.6 lists for the Member States that have reported the number of RBDs, surface water bodies per category; and total and average river lengths and area of lakes, transitional and coastal waters.

Table 2.6: Number of RBDs, water bodies, and river lengths, area of lakes, transitional and coastal waters per country.

Source: Extract from WISE-WFD http://wfd.atkins.dk/report/WFD_aggregation_reports/SWB_RIVER_DENSITY   

Notes: Based on 142 RBDs available in WISE-WFD database (version February 2012). Wrong river length for Italy, and coastal area for Spain not included in average calculation and sum.

2.4.1.      River water bodies

Europe has an extensive network of rivers and streams. In total more than 85 000 river water bodies with a length greater than one million kilometre has been reported by Member States. Four countries, Sweden, France, UK and Germany, reported more than half of the river water bodies, while three countries, France, Germany and the UK accounted for nearly half of the river length (Table 2.6).

The average size of the more than 85 000 reported river water bodies is 11.8 km long. Four Member States had river water bodies more than the double size the EU average and Latvia and Bulgaria had river water bodies longer than 30 km, and The Netherlands and Romania had river water bodies longer than 25 km. Austria, Ireland and Sweden had relative small river water bodies average length less than 5 km and less than half the EU average. If a Member State report relative large river water bodies for example it may have several river water bodies longer than 50 km, it may be difficult to characterize the status (e.g. sections may have different status). 

The same river can contain different water bodies, since the status of the water may change. The diagram below applies to a river with high-quality water at its source, which gradually becomes more polluted downstream.

Member States like Ireland and Austria have a three to four times higher density of river water bodies than the EU average of around 23 river water bodies per 1000 km² of the Member State territory. Five countries have a relative higher river length (length per 1000 km²) than the EU average. Some countries like Latvia, Finland, The Netherlands, Greece and Spain have a lower density of river water bodies (rWBs per km²) and river length (river length per km²) than the EU average. If a Member State has a low coverage of the rivers in a country, the characterization of status and pressures may not be fully representative for the rivers in the Member State.

2.4.2.      Lake water bodies

There are more than 500 000 natural lakes larger than 0.01 km² (1 ha) in Europe (EEA 1995). About 80 % to 90 % of these are small with a surface area of between 0.01 and 0.1 km², whereas around 16 000 have a surface area exceeding 1 km². Twenty four European lakes have a surface area larger than 400 km².

Many natural European lakes appeared 10 000 to 15 000 years ago; when the ice sheet covered all of northern Europe. In central and southern Europe ice sheets only stretched as far as mountain ranges. As a rule, the regions comprising many natural lakes were affected by the Weichsel ice. For example, countries like Norway, Sweden, and Finland have numerous lakes that account for approximately 5% to 10% of their national surface area. In central Europe, most natural lakes lie in mountain regions. Lakes at high altitude are relatively small whereas those in valleys are larger, for example Lac Léman, Bodensee, and Lago Maggiore in the Alps. European countries which were only partially affected by the glaciation period (Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, southern England, central Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Slovak Republic) have few natural lakes. In these areas man-made lakes such as reservoirs and ponds are often more common than natural lakes.

Lakes are often split into two main types (shallow and deep lakes) as they tend to have different sensitivities to pressures such as water pollution. High quality shallow lakes are characterised by healthy submerged plant communities and associated diverse communities of invertebrates, fish and wetland birds. Phytoplankton is also present but typically in low levels. Naturally characterised by clear water, these systems have frequently shifted into turbid, phytoplankton-dominated states lacking macrophytes, primarily caused by nutrient pollution (eutrophication). Deep lakes are mainly found in mountainous regions and under natural conditions they are characterised by very low nutrient loads. Macrophytes are restricted to a narrow belt along the shores and phytoplankton abundance is low. Eutrophication in deep lakes causes enhanced primary production by phytoplankton, in severe cases algal blooms and oxygen depletion (particularly in the deep zones) may affect all processes and species

Twenty-one Member States have reported lakes. In total around 18 000 lake water bodies with an area greater than 90 000 km² has been reported by Member States. Two countries, Sweden, and Finland, reported more than two thirds of the lake water bodies and lake area.

The average area of the more than 18 000 reported lake water bodies is 5.1 km² – the average size is markedly influenced by the very large lakes. Seven Member States (Austria, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, and Spain) had average size of lake water bodies greater than 10 km².

Half of the reported lakes are less than 1 km² in area and more than 87 % of the reported lake water bodies have an area less than 5 km² (Table 2.7) Only 78 of the reported lake water bodies have an area greater than 150 km²; Finland and Sweden have reported 28 and 16 lake water bodies greater than 150 km², and Lithuania and Spain reported 9 and 8 large lake water bodies.

 Table 2.7: Number of lake water bodies according to size of WBs

Some Member States (e.g. Sweden and Finland) have divided their large lakes into several water bodies, while other Member States (e.g. Austria) only have one water body for each of their lakes.

2.4.3.      Transitional water bodies

Transitional waters are those waters between the land and the sea and include fjords, estuaries, lagoons, deltas and rias. They often encompass river mouths and show the transition from freshwater to marine conditions. Depending on the tidal influence from coastal waters, but also on the freshwater influence from upstream, transitional waters are often characterised by frequently changing salinity.

Transitional waters are the sites of major cities and harbours (ports) and these waters historically have been degraded by port activities, by pollution from urban, industrial and agricultural areas, and by land claim for sea defences, building and agriculture.

Fifteen Member States reported from 77 RBDs transitional water bodies. In total 953 transitional water bodies with an area greater than 17 300 km² has been reported by Member States. Five countries; United Kingdom, Spain, France. Italy and Ireland;  reported more than 90 % of the transitional water bodies and more than 70 % of transitional area.

The average size/area of the reported transitional WBs is 18 km². Five Member States had average size of transitional water bodies greater than 100 km².

2.4.4.      Coastal waters

Coastal waters represent the interface between land and ocean, and in the context of the Water Framework Directive coastal waters include water, that has not been designated as transitional water, extending one nautical mile from a baseline defined by the land points where territorial waters are measured.

All European coastal waters have, to a varying degree, been affected by eutrophication and this has led to nuisance and toxic algal blooms, loss of benthic habitats by shading out benthic vegetation and eradication of benthic fauna due to oxygen depletion as well as fish kills.

The EU has a coastline of 68 000 km. When EEA member countries Turkey, Iceland and Norway are also included, the coastline length is 185 000 km (EEA 2010). Almost half of the EU's population lives less than 50 km from the sea, the majority concentrated in urban areas along the coast. In 2001, 70 million people or 14 % of the entire EU population lived within 500 meters of the coast. The sea is Europe's most popular holiday destination: 63 % European holiday makers choose the seaside as their holiday destination.

Eighteen Member States reported more than 2770 coastal water bodies from 97 RBDs. The total area of the reported coastal waters is more than 265 000 km². The average area of the reported coastalwater bodies is 97 km² (Table 2.6)Two Member States: Estonia and the Netherlands; had average size of coastal water bodies greater than 700 km².

2.5.     Groundwater bodies

All 24 Member States have reported groundwater bodies. In total 12 600 groundwater bodies from 133 River Basin Districts have been reported. Sweden and Finland reported 3021 and 3804 groundwater bodies and thus accounted for more half of the groundwater bodies. Compared to the other Member States the average size of groundwater bodies Sweden and Finland is 7 km² while the average size the groundwater bodies for the other Member States is 600 km².

Source: Extract from WISE-WFD http://wfd.atkins.dk/report/WFD_aggregation_reports/GWB_status   

Notes: .

The total area of reported groundwater bodies is 3.5 million km². Groundwater bodies have been for different horizon and groundwater bodies may overlay other groundwater bodies.

2.6.     Heavily modified and artificial water bodies

See draft chapter 2 of draft thematic assessment on hydromorphology < the main results are included below>

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) allows Member States (MS) to designate some of their surface waters as heavily modified water bodies (HMWB) or artificial water bodies (AWB), whereby they will not need to meet the same quality criteria required for other surface waters, which are considered as natural types.  A surface water body is a section of a river, lake, or transitional or coastal water.

A heavily modified water body refers to a body of surface water that as a result of physical alteration by human activity is substantially changed in character (WFD Article 2 (9)).  A surface water body is considered as artificial when it was created by human activity (WFD Article 2 (8)). There is a wide range of differences in the number of designated surface water bodies among the countries.

Overall, 17.8% of European river water bodies and 16.0% of lake water bodies are designated by the MS as either heavily modified water bodies or artificial water bodies. In the Netherlands majority of the river water bodies are heavily modified while in Sweden almost all river water bodies are in natural condition. The Netherlands, Czech Republic and Belgium, Flanders designated nearly all of their lake water bodies as being either heavily modified or artificial.

A total of 18 EU Member States have on average identified around 6.1 % of their coastal water bodies as heavily modified (6.1 %) and artificial (0.5 %) . The share of transitional water bodies identified as heavily modified and artificial in 15 EU Member States is much larger (25 %), of which 2 % are artificial.

Two sea regions of Europe (Greater North Sea and Black Sea) and six Member States (the UK, Spain, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania and Poland) have more than 10 % of their coastal water bodies identified as heavily modified or artificial.   About 60 % of transitional water bodies are identified as heavily modified or artificial in the Greater North Sea and Black Sea regions. In other sea regions this percentage is 25 % or less. Six Member States (the UK, Bulgaria, Poland, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands) have more than 25 % of their transitional water bodies identified as heavily modified or artificial.

Heavily modified and artificial water bodies are clearly associated with densely populated, urbanised areas with industrial areas and ports as well as low-lying or mountainous regions.

References

WFD-CIS Guidance Document No. 21 “Guidance for reporting under the Water Framework Directive” http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/env/wfd/library?l=/framework_directive/guidance_documents/guidance_guidance_report/_EN_1.0_&a=d